This invention relates generally to water-based rides and more particularly to such a ride that allows spectators to interact with the water ride participants.
The phenomenal growth of water parks in the past few decades has witnessed an evolution in water-based attractions. In the '70s and early '80s, these water attractions took the form of slides from which a participant started at an upper pool and slid by way of gravity passage down a serpentine slide upon recycled water to a lower landing pool. U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,301 to Meyers discloses such a slide dug into the side of a hill. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,198,043 to Timbes and 4,196,900 to Becker et al. disclose such slides supported on a structure. Each of these slides only allowed essentially one-dimensional movement from the upper pool, down the slide to the lower pool. Consequently, the path taken down the slide always remained the same thus limiting the sense of novelty and the unexpected for the participant after multiple uses.
Cognizant of this limitation in traditional water slides, new water attractions were developed which inserted a little more of the element of chance during the ride. One such attraction has up to twelve people seated within a circular floating ring being propelled down a flume comprising a series of man-made rapids, water falls and timed water spouts. As the floating ring moves down the path of the water attraction, contact with the sides of the flume cause the ring to rotate thus moving certain people in closer proximity to the "down-river" side of the rapids, the water falls and the spouts. Those people who were closest to such features of the water ride tended to get the most wet. Since such movement was determined mostly by chance, each participant had an equal chance of getting drenched throughout the ride by any one of the many water ride features.
This later type of ride, though an improvement over the traditional water slide, was still essentially a one-dimensional travel from an upper start area down to a lower start area where all features came into play. Furthermore, each of these features were either continuously active (such as the water fall) or automatically activated by the proximity of the floating ring to the feature.
The popularity of these types of rides has resulted in very long lines at such water parks. Spectators, such as those waiting in line for the water ride, could not interact (except verbally) with those participants on the ride. Consequently, the lasting memory at such parks may not very well be the rides at the park but the long lines and waiting required to use the rides.
Accordingly, a need remains for a type of water ride that entertains the spectator as well as the participant.